The Challenges of Library Systems Procurement: Fish or Fowl, Vendor or DIY?

1. Fish or Fowl? Vendor or DIY or … ? Image - http://www.bobcrowe.com/Stories/fish%20nor%20fowl%20-%20web.htm

2. Mission Over the next 11.5 minutes we will consider • Schizophrenia in library solutions procurement • The hopelessness of hegemony • The transcendence of LMS Change Simples  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meerkat

3. Mission Over the next 11 minutes we will consider • Schizophrenia in library solutions procurement • The hopelessness of hegemony • The transcendence of LMS Change Alternatively stated as … We will consider … • Challenges and opportunities beyond the standard ‘tick list’ of requirements • Resources recently published by the Jisc funded LMS Change project

4. Problem 1 - Schizophrenia Library systems procurement is conflicted • We want to replace a system v. • We want a bigger solution • We know what we do now v. • Who knows what we might de doing in “the future” • We want shrink wrapped serviced software (COTS) v. • We want a helping hand • We want a one stop solution v. • Some suppliers want to bring their friends • We want a vendor to beat upv. • Some options don’t have vendors • (etc)

5. Web Scale Activity Problem 2 - Hegemony Online Courses Text Book Evolution Cloud Storage Identity Mgmt Analytics Trading Bring Your Own Environment Learning & Teaching Assets Social Media Publishing Platforms Search Engines Linked Data Community Shared Services Enterprise Applications Institutional Library Services Analytics Analytics Proprietary Shared Services Enterprise Infrastructure Open Publishing Research Assets Horizontal Enterprise Integration Vertical Domain Integration http://lmsguidance.jiscinvolve.org/wp/policy-direction/

6. LMS Change ecosystem considerations in 2013 extend significantly beyond the service boundaries and actors set out in the 2009 HEFCE study, thus reinforcing its recommendations

7. Shared Services in the UK Image – Shared Services & The Local Library Platform – October 2012 - Innovative Interfaces

8. Digital Darwinism for Dummies • Fact? (My assertion) – It’s a mixed economy, an evolving ecosystem • Fact? (King of the jungle) – I have you covered • Observations (Darwin, MIT90s, Kelly) • Ecosystems are not always nice • Only change is certain … and the cycles keep getting shorter • Agility is the key to survival • Possible Responses • Pretend this is not the case • Roll with the fittest survivor • Promote those that play well together http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/15/colleges-prepare-major-software-upgrades-kuali-tries-woo-them-corporate-vendors

9. Identifying the fittest • Tick all the operational boxes • Can and will do everything themselves • Play well in the local ecosystem • “Do not preclude the library from taking part in [enterprise] conversations” - Winkler • Play well in the community / global ecosystem • Understand the other LSP players • With appetite and resources to address the challenges you bring • Live up to this in your procurement by • Engaging in creative dialogue • Demonstrating the working parts (e.g. Open interfaces, open data) • Agreeing mechanisms to make this happen on an ongoing basis Spot the deliberate error?

10. HELP!?!? http://lmsguidance.jiscinvolve.org/wp/

11. LMS Change Methods - for working though options internally and with potential suppliers http://lmsguidance.jiscinvolve.org/wp/methods-toolbox/

12. It’s your fault not theirs Steady on! I’ve never done this before How about … • Don’t procure ‘a system’ • Don’t construct the business case around ‘a system’ • Think out of the box about risk • Disconnect ‘the system’ from ‘the contractor’ • Procure against more than a tick list • Devise scoring that reflects the balance between functionality, integration and ‘commitment’ • Capture ‘commitments’ and services explicitly in the contract And procurement won’t understand